Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 10:09 pm Post subject: Where are the websites listing the files you can delete from
There used to be a few websites with details of what files could safely be deleted from installed XBox games, to save space on your XBox's hard drive. So that, when you'd used DVD2XBox to install a game, you could look the game up on one of these sites, and find out, for example, that you could remove the folders:
\Ger\
\ITA\
\FRE\
\VIDEOS\PAL\
or whatever (depending on your XBox's region), as those files wouldn't be used when you ran the game, and so were only taking up hard drive space. The non-essential stuff might also include preview videos of then forthcoming games, etc, that you could also safely delete.
But nowadays I can't find any of those sites. Have they all disappeared, and if so, do any of them still exist on the Wayback machine (https://archive.org/web/)? Or is all that data now lost? A text file with all of the files or folders listed that can safely be removed from original XBox games would be a useful and convenient thing to have. The amount of space you could save by deleting unused files really added up, if you had many games installed.
ArchAngle V.I.P. Lifetime Xbox Version: v1.6 Modded: Xecuter 2.6 CE
Joined: Oct 03, 2014 Posts: 367
Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 3:41 am Post subject:
I've never come across a definitive list of safe to delete game files but you should be able to find threads in various Xbox forums, may even be some here, which cover specific games.
In general you can delete anything named as an updater ie. dashupdater.xbe as these are now redundant. But if you're doing the editing on the Xbox make sure you delete it rather than launch it because if you're using an unprotected softmod you'll be spending a lot of time sorting it out.
Language files not relevant to your use can be deleted eg. some intro FMV, particularly PAL games, can have language or occasionally region specific video files ie. NTSC and PAL.
Games demos or similar promotional content for other titles are often included and these can take up large amounts of space, in some cases almost as much as the game itself.
These can be deleted if you don't mind having menu options not functioning.
There are other files that could be deleted like unwanted unlockable extras, particularly things such art work files and 'making of' videos. But that would be game specific so general advice about what is and is not safe to delete cannot be given.
Clockface Xbox-HQ Newbie Xbox Version: v1.6 Modded: Xecuter 2.6 CE
Joined: Nov 16, 2021 Posts: 3
Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2021 7:53 pm Post subject:
ArchAngle wrote:
I've never come across a definitive list of safe to delete game files but you should be able to find threads in various Xbox forums, may even be some here, which cover specific games.
In general you can delete anything named as an updater ie. dashupdater.xbe as these are now redundant. But if you're doing the editing on the Xbox make sure you delete it rather than launch it because if you're using an unprotected softmod you'll be spending a lot of time sorting it out.
Language files not relevant to your use can be deleted eg. some intro FMV, particularly PAL games, can have language or occasionally region specific video files ie. NTSC and PAL.
Games demos or similar promotional content for other titles are often included and these can take up large amounts of space, in some cases almost as much as the game itself.
These can be deleted if you don't mind having menu options not functioning.
There are other files that could be deleted like unwanted unlockable extras, particularly things such art work files and 'making of' videos. But that would be game specific so general advice about what is and is not safe to delete cannot be given.
Oh yes, what you say is correct, and I have manually gone through XBox game installs, testing what is safe to delete. But there were fan-made websites that listed what was safe to delete from the games, to save anyone having to use trial and error. Sadly, I must have lost their bookmarks in a hard drive sometime, and, thanks largely to Microsoft's customer unfriendly way of naming every one of their consoles an 'XBox', any online search involves sorting through hundreds of websites talking about the 360 or XBox One, or Series systems.
Though I can't vouch for the accuracy contained there, as if I remember rightly, there is more than 2GB of data you can safely delete from Morrowind: Game of the Year, in it's French and German folders (as long as you just want to use English in the game, of course), that is not listed on that web site.
Dkoots Moderator
Joined: Oct 13, 2007 Posts: 1015 Location: VA
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 3:58 pm Post subject:
The time you’re going to spend or already have spent, sorting through files and researching, doesn’t seem worth the effort. I can’t imagine you’re going to save very much space in doing this. If you’re working with a smaller drive, then just play the games and delete old ones to make room for more. _________________
ArchAngle V.I.P. Lifetime Xbox Version: v1.6 Modded: Xecuter 2.6 CE
Joined: Oct 03, 2014 Posts: 367
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2021 4:59 pm Post subject:
Tend to agree. that's what I've always done on a LE Green I wanted to keep stock. It is softmodded but until I was forced to crack it open recently to deal with some internal problems, not entirely fixed, I, obviously, just used the original HDD installing, playing and then deleting games after I'd finished.
You can fit a 2TB HDD into an Xbox so unless you're going to install hundreds of games thinning the content down to save space is just making unnecessary work for yourself.
Clockface Xbox-HQ Newbie Xbox Version: v1.6 Modded: Xecuter 2.6 CE
Joined: Nov 16, 2021 Posts: 3
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 5:26 pm Post subject:
Dkoots wrote:
The time you’re going to spend or already have spent, sorting through files and researching, doesn’t seem worth the effort. I can’t imagine you’re going to save very much space in doing this. If you’re working with a smaller drive, then just play the games and delete old ones to make room for more.
ArchAngle wrote:
Tend to agree. that's what I've always done on a LE Green I wanted to keep stock. It is softmodded but until I was forced to crack it open recently to deal with some internal problems, not entirely fixed, I, obviously, just used the original HDD installing, playing and then deleting games after I'd finished.
You can fit a 2TB HDD into an Xbox so unless you're going to install hundreds of games thinning the content down to save space is just making unnecessary work for yourself.
You're both correct, of course, and I'm not desperate for space (I currently have a 500GB hard drive in my XBox, and I might upgrade it at some point). But back in the day, I put an 80GB hard drive in, so space was tighter then, and I managed to save enough space to fit in a few more games.
It is a pity that those websites that listed what files were safe to delete from each games have no disappeared off the net. More information lost from public knowledge. At least the Wayback Machine has managed to save most of the website I linked to above.
The program DVD2XBox can be made to automatically delete the redundant files in a given game, as long as there is an .ACL file telling DVD2XBox what files to remove from that particular game.
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